After being thrown into a cistern, Joseph eventually winds up in prison in Egypt. But even in prison, Joseph seeks to serve God by helping others. During our worst times, do we seek to help others, or are we only focused on ourselves?

Every family is broken. Just ask Joseph. His brothers hate him so much that they throw him into a cistern and almost leave him for dead. When our families are filled with brokenness and acrimony, we must seek reconciliation and forgiveness.

As Jacob is running from his brother, he wrestles with God in the middle of the night. Have you ever felt like you were wrestling with God? Counterintuitively, our greatest struggles with God can lead to great growth in our strength and in our faith.

When Jacob falls in love with his uncle’s daughter, Rachel, he is willing to do anything to get her. Love drives us to do many things. This is why we can be thankful that God’s love for us drove Him to do the ultimate thing – to sacrifice His Son for our salvation.

From the womb, two brothers, Jacob and Esau, feud with each other. When we feud with others, how are we to handle these feuds? Our desire to love others must always be stronger than our desire to triumph over others.

God makes an unthinkable request of Abraham – to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. But a human sacrifice can never atone for human sins. God Himself must provide the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Sodom and Gomorrah were the epitome of wickedness in the ancient world. Yet, in spite of their wickedness, Abraham argues for God’s grace. When we see wickedness, how do we argue? Do you we argue for judgment or grace?

God continues to seek new beginnings in a world filled with old sin. He makes a promise to Abraham to, from him, bring forth a new nation that will be a beacon of righteousness in a world darkened by sin. He also shows us how righteousness ultimately comes about – by faith.

Noah brings a new beginning, but humanity quickly falls back into its old ways as it seeks to usurp God’s position by building a tall tower. This tower demonstrates both the folly and the danger of human ambition. Human ambition is filled with folly because, of course, no one can build a tower to the heavens. But human ambition is also filled with danger because it cannot compete with God’s perfect commands.

As man’s wickedness increases, God’s justice against sin is finally rendered in the form of a flood. But out of disaster emerges a man chosen by God to bring forth a new beginning – Noah. As “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17), we too are called to bring forth new beginnings in a world that is filled with sin.